Airplane refueling system



- Sept. 27, 1938. K. ARNDT AIRPLANE REFUELING SYSTEM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed Feb. 10, 1934 r-|. l.i.FllLlTiiiii -Tiilw riL ATTORNEYS Sept. 27,1938. K. ARNDT AIRPLANE REFUELING SYSTEM 2 Shets-Sheet- 2 Filed Feb. 10,1934 Q. ww

far/ 7" 0 75 ATTORN EYG Patented Sept. 27, 1938 PATENT OFFICE Y2,131,610 AIRPLANE REFUELING SYSTEM Kurt arndt, Detroit, Mich.

Application February 10, 1934, Serial No. 710,628

iclaim.

This invention relates to the refueling of airplanes and has for itsobject to provide feasible means for rendering fuel supplies availablefrom time to time to a plane in flight across an ocean or any otherlarge body of water.

Numerous attempts of varying degrees of success have been made to pickup packages by planes in flight, the greatest success having beenencountered when the package is in motion as by.catapulting orotherwise. No attempt, as far as I am aware, has heretofore been made toaccomplish pickups over water. It is, therefore,

an object of this invention to provide means by, which this may besafely accomplished.

Seadromes have been suggested for anchoring at intervals across theocean. Such structures are very expensive toconstruct, scarcely portablefor shifting with the seasons, would probably be destroyed almostmomentarily in time of war, and are proposed'in contemplation of wastingtime in an ocean crossing rather than in eliminating stops. It is anobject of this invention to provide a pick up device mounted on a shipor vessel so that it may be readily portable and hence adapted to ashifting of the route for summer and winter crossings, which will refuela plane in flight and. hence save the time of stopping for this purpose,which will carry facilities for repairing planes in case a landingshould become necessary due to improper functioning of the engines orother reason, and which may be constructed at a fraction of the cost ofthe proposed seadromes. I

. Thedifliculty in transferring packages to planes in flight over waterrevolves around the fact that a vessel or ship is constantly in movementby the action of the waves. It is an object of this invention to providemeans in the form of a we superstructure for a ship from which packagesmay be transferred to a plane in flight, the super- [structurebeingmovable in a manner to counteract the movement of, the ship due to'thewaves.

It is understood that a ship is ,given to heaving, rolling and pitching.If the ship is headinginto the. waves, the rolling motion becomes aminimum. The period of heaving is quite long and easily reckoned by apracticed eye. It therefore becomes necessary to provide for thepitching motion alone. It is therefore another object to provide asuperstructure, as described above, which may pivot about a point at ornear the center of the ship, and to provide a track and car means onthis superstructure by which a package may .be given very substantialspeed in 'the direction of a plane flying thereabovef thereinto underpropulsion of a prime, mover I, convena, rapid acceleration thereof, andthat it lend -car. A bar or handle 9 is resiliently connected Anotherobject is to provide means for coordlnating the release of the packagealong its runway with the position of the approaching plane.

A further object is, to provide guide means for 5 aiding the pilot inestimating the correct height of the plane while traversing the runwayby which heaving may be corrected.

A further object is to provide an improved pick up hook to be carried bythe plane.

Other objects and advantages will become hereinafter more fully apparentas reference is had to the accompanying drawings, wherein my inventionis illustrated by way of example and in carried by a plane;

vFig. 6 is a vertical section through a portion of the fuselage of aplane receiving a package Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the vessel ofFigs.

1 and 2 showing a plane approaching and the car starting signal meansbehind the vessel, and

Fig. 8 is a schematic detail of a modified form of runway oscillatingmeans, 35 More particularly, l refers to a vessel intended to be ofsuiflcient size to withstand the rigors of I indefinite ocean cruising.Projecting well above the decks of the vessel I is a support or standard2 having a hinge 3 at the top thereof for carry ing a platform 4.Integral with this platform or runway are tracks 5 upon which is mounteda "a car 6 adapted to travel the length -of said tracks ientlycarrieddirectly on the ,car. The prime mover is here illustrated as anelectric motor but might suitably be a hydraulic or other type de--vice, the requirement being'that. it be capable of driving the car at aconstant high speed after itself to rapid deceleration of the car as theend of the track is approached. A package 8, for instance a can of fuel,is adapted to rest on the.

to the package 8 to damp the impact oi pickup by a plane in flight.

In order to rock the runway 4 so that the package 8 will traversesubstantially a horizontal course, I provide retractible and extensiblefore and aft supports l0. These supports may be slidably mounted in thecylinders I I and connected to a hydraulic actuating system l2. Theactuation of these supports I is automatically controlled by a suspendedweight I3 which makes contact with the terminals H in accord with thepitching of the ship to energize the motors I5, forming the actuatingmeans for the hydraulic systems.

Numerous arrangements for rocking the runway might be employed, adifferent type being illustrated in Figure 8 wherein the runway la onthe vessel la has crank arms l6 connected to oscillable means I!connected to motors l8 for energization by a pendulum switch IS. Aheight guide 20 of substantially equal length with the runway may beprovided to assist a pilot in estimating his distance above the runwayboth before and after attachment of the airplane hook to the package.

This assists in eliminating all slack prior to the loss oftrack supportby the package.

In Fig. 7 the runway .4 is illustrated with the car 6 loaded with apackage 8 ready to be picked up by an approaching plane 2| It isintended that the ship will proceed in the direction offiight of theplane and in the direction such that the minimum amount of rolling will.occur. A trailer 22 is provided to float at a distance/behind the shipI. This trailer may be provided with any suitable type of signal means23, as the so called electric eye for indicating the moment the plane 2iarrives directly thereabove. The signal automatically energizes themotor I of the car and the car thereupon travels along the track at aspeed slightly less than that of the plane so that the hook 24 suspendedfrom the plane by the cable or rod 25 may engage the handle 8 withoutshock.

The hook 24 is best shown in Fig. 5. A fln or vane 26 is provided tostabilize the hook in flight and yieldable means such as a helicalspring 21 is provided to maintain the hook in horizontal positionpending contact with the handle 9. The hook 24 swings to the verticalunder assumption of the load of the package 8 and is ready for hoistinginto the fuselage 28 of the plane by means of the windlass 29. A guide30 may be provided to assist the package 8 through the doorway.

Various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit ofmy invention and I therefore desire to be extended protection as definedby the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is:

Means for refueling airplanes in flight from a nyther ship having arunway lengthwise thereof and said airplanes having pick-up mechanism, acar adapted for travel on said runway, motive means for propelling saidcar along saidrunway, means on said car enabling it to carry a loadedcontainerof airplane fuel, control means for said motive means andincluding an electric eye tethered a predetermined distance from saidship for controlling the time and speeds of the motive meanswith the eyeactive to signal the beginning of the motive means cycle and with sucheye activity controlled by the positional the airplane to thereby causesaid car with the container to be accelerated to its maximum speed alongsaid runway concurrently with the arrival of the plane at such pointalong said runway to. permit the pick up mechanism on said airplane toco-operate with said container to transfer the container from the car tothe plane before the car reaches the end of the runway and while thespeed of the car has its nearest approach to the airplane speed.

KURT ARNDT.

